REPORT FROM CANADA

By Paul Harris*

Having established a flourishing network of sustainable forestry activities in North America and western Europe, the challenge for the global industry is now to drive change in Asian and southern hemisphere nations.
Many hope third-party timber certification will be able to raise awareness - and the bar for competing wood product operators - in the same way as it has in western countries, said Claude Martin, director general of WWF International, during a gathering of forestry leaders in Vancouver, Canada, in June.
Martin shared his views on the future of the sector with timber industry decision-makers and customers during the inaugural Vision 2015 conference. Corporate executives, policy makers, suppliers and sector stakeholders from primarily Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America used the conference to zone in on future challenges and opportunities likely to confront the global forest and paper sector over the next decade. .
Martin said that a total of 91 million hectares of the planetﾕs forestry resource is lost each year. Southern parts of the Amazon rainforest, the Congo region in Africa and parts of southeast Asia are among the main suspects.
"It is largely a tropical forest problem because when it comes to forest area the temperate forests are increasing or remaining stable, whereas the big decrease in forest area is in the tropics," he said.
Tropical forests have also been fragmented as timber production expanded - a situation certification schemes were partly designed to address. But raising the profile of certification in tropical forest areas is tricky when timber is traded between tropical countries where western opinion-formers have less access to consumer markets, said Martin.
The business case for sound forest management is being made in North America, said Jean-Pierre Martel, vice-president of sustainability at the Forest Products Association of Canada.
"It is amazing how many procurement policies are developing and augmenting a growing trend among architects using wood. It makes good business sense for suppliers looking at all the elements of sustainability together with price, service and wood quality."
Hosting this monthﾕs Vision 2015 conference in British Columbia is timely and logical. The province is the worldﾕs largest producer of softwood products and with the exception of Canada as a whole, has more certified lands than any other jurisdiction.
According to new data, B.C. has doubled the amount of certified lands in the past year. There are now 41.8 million hectares of B.C. forestland certified under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the North American-focused Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) or CSA (the Canadian National Sustainable Forest Management Standard).
The province is currently implementing its new Forest and Range Practices Act - a bold bid to reduce bureaucracy surrounding forest management while, in turn, beefing up penalties on timber harvesters who don't meet the stringent framework. The legislation replaces the formerly prescriptive approach to forest management, with a results-based code designed to increase further the sectorﾕs dynamism.
The move should offer B.C.'s lumber majors greater flexibility over decision-making that is more in line with the needs of the market. It has already been well received.
"Sustainability is part of our social licence to operate in Canada," said Martel. ﾒThese certification systems are not static, and the fact we have at least three competing systems has been pretty good. It has triggered improvements to the various systems and practices, so there is more convergence.
"Because we depend very much on exports to the United States, Europe and Asia, people here did not want to wait, seeing it as important instead to take a leadership role and get third party certified."
For a credible system of sustainability to be replicated globally, however, a legislative framework and infrastructure needs to be in place, said Teresa Presas, managing director of the Brussels-based Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI).
"Communication is one area we can work together," she said. "This is imperative for our industry because we have not been very good in communicating our activities and our case and our achievements."
Akin to European market-driven certification, sustainable development in North America is based on fundamental business principles, said Weyerhaeuser Co. chief operating officer Rich Hanson at a recent meeting in Oregon.
But more can be done.
"Companies and corporations can show a commitment to sustainability by enhancing their traditional financial reporting to include the environmental and social impact of their operations. This sends a strong signal to citizens and to markets.
"The next step has to be more integrated approaches to reporting. By finding ways to link together financial, environmental and social reporting, the business case for sustainable development will become even stronger."
Issues central to the future of sustainable forest management have also recently been introduced by Yale University professor Benjamin Cashore.
The forestry academic last year compared timber harvesting policies in Canada to competitors in markets around the world.
By analyzing activities within 38 jurisdictions - including Latvia, New Zealand, Germany, Russia, Brazil and the United States - Cashore was able to compare the records of key wood exporting nations on issues including: certification, clear-cutting, plantation management and riparian zone management (the areas around waterways).
Of key interest, the actual rate of timber harvesting is no true guide to the sustainability of the forest resource. And, by examining private and public forestland ﾐ such as in B.C. where 95 per cent of forestland is crown owned ﾐ Cashore illustrated how the success of sustainability efforts can sometimes relate to the type of forest ownership in place.
"Everything else being equal, governments face fewer hurdles in their efforts to develop stringent regulations governing forest management on public lands than they do on private lands," he said.
With wood product certification systems so well established in Europe (and with retail customers taking notice), the environmental debate is switching toward energy use at the large sawmills which dot the continentﾕs landscape, said Leif Broden, president of the Sodra group and its Scandinavian operations.
A decade ago, energy production made up one per cent of pulp producer Sodraﾕs annual profits. Today, it makes up around 25 per cent. The company supplies heat to local communities using biofuel such as sawmill chips and pallets.

Set against a backdrop of burgeoning Asian demand and of architects taking a much closer look at the design qualities of wood, British Columbia is becoming a centre for the computerized manufacturing of heavy timber.
Projects using glulam, timber framing and engineered wood processes are becoming increasingly prominent in North American construction.
Consultant Robert Malczyk of Equilibrium Consulting in Vancouver has worked on a large number of structural wood engineering projects in Asia, North America and Europe.
"Before many engineers would not consider using heavy timber but now, because of this green approach, it is being considered for almost all projects," he said.
"We have some of the best timbers in the world here for strength, such as large dimension Douglas fir. We are now thinking about the cost of transportation in our project plans, and what happens after the structure is dismantled. You can tell that B.C. is becoming the centre of computerized manufacturing for heavy timber in North America."
Lars-Goran Sandberg, founder of Swedish timber analysis company Timwood AB, said mega operators are moving expertise away from the construction site and into the factory.
"We are moving toward more component-based building, which speeds up lead times and productivity - a trend which will increase and put pressures on wood companies," he said.
Sandberg said the key to certain companiesﾕ growth will be to prepare a package of wood products which includes home-hewn materials as well as products sourced from Asia. He said Chinese manufacturers can add to the attractiveness of a companyﾕs overall product mix, rather than necessarily be a threat to it.
He shared discussions with forestry colleagues at the inaugural Vision 2015 conference, a gathering of key timber industry decision-makers in Vancouver. There he joined corporate executives, policy makers, suppliers and sector stakeholders from around the world to analyse the future challenges and opportunities likely to confront the global forest and paper sector.
For specifiers, British Columbia is an obvious home for wood innovation. The provinceﾕs forestry practices are able to reassure sustainably-oriented procurers, and it has taken a leading role in developing the use of heavy timber. Demand for construction is high ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, to be hosted by Vancouver and Whistler. And with Asian construction booming, Vancouver is positioning itself as North Americaﾕs gateway to trading opportunities.
Japan remains a long-standing consumer of wood for construction and is the biggest export market for suppliers of hemlock harvested and milled on the B.C. Coast. Indeed, Japan represents 16 per cent of all B.C. wood exports. And for many suppliers of lumber to Japan, kiln dried timber is becoming an increasing focus.
B.C.ﾕs lumber shipments to Japan totalled CDN$974.7 million (EUR 615 million) during the first nine months of last year, in the face of rising competition from suppliers in Scandinavia and Russia.
"I think there is going to be a renaissance in building with wood,ﾓ said Avrim Lazar, president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada.
ﾒAs society becomes more alienated from nature and becomes increasingly urbanized and surrounded by steel, concrete and plastic, what is considered modern and desirable will be materials which have a more natural design. This will be particularly prevalent in mega-cities, such as those being built in Asia."
B.C. is currently part-way through the construction of its ambitious "Dream Home China" project which includes the recently opened presentation centre in Shanghai designed to showcase the provinceﾕs wood products. The project, which will include demonstration villas and multi-storey buildings, is due for completion in 2007. Its overarching goal is to illustrate to Chinese designers and specifiers the benefits of using wood in construction.
Like its Russian and European counterparts, B.C. considers China a key part of its wood product export growth strategy.
Meantime, Sandberg predicts further consolidation among the large distributors, coupled with the continued growth of the home improvement sector.
"Europe and North America have a very common interest in creating increasing demand for wood products and the whole issue around sustainability will be increasingly important," he said.
"We have a real chance to promote solutions that are more environmentally friendly than concrete, steel or brick.
* The author is a forestry writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia